Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Pattison is a chain-smoker. She walks with a slight stoop and a limp, and she has surgical scars on her back where a metal rod or plate was inserted in her spine.

Medical Conditions: Pattison is classified as disabled. She had surgery to repair in 1983 a ruptured disc and was unable to work after that. She abused prescription painkillers and alcohol after her surgery, and once tried to commit suicide.

Details of Disappearance

Pattison was last seen in Greenland, Michigan on August 26, 1993. That evening, she met two elderly male acquaintances at the Rosseau Bar and went to their cabin. At 10:30 p.m., she left the cabin. She never arrived home and has never been heard from again.

Pattison's blue and silver 1989 Ford Tempo 300 was found on September 1, stuck just off a two-track dirt trail near Vista Drive Road. Her keys, purse, cigarettes, $2 in cash and other belongings were still inside the car; her wallet and driver's license had been left at her house. An extensive search of the area turned up no indication of her whereabouts. Footprints were found nearby; they emerged from a creek and continued for three or four miles along the logging trail before disappearing at a gravel road. Police took casts of the prints. They were a woman's size 7 and similar to nurse's shoes, which Pattison normally wore, but it was never verified that they were from her. Dogs were unable to pick up her scent.

Pattison had been drinking alcohol on the night of her disappearance and police theorized she became confused under the influence of the alcohol and her prescription pain medication and turned the wrong way after leaving her friends' cabin, became lost, and abandoned the car after it got stuck. Suicide and foul play were also investigated as possible causes of Pattison's disappearance. She had tried to commit suicide once before. The area where her car was found was so rugged and densely wooded that her loved ones didn't believe she would have driven there on her own; authorities considered the idea that someone else put the car there and planted the footprints to mislead the investigation. A voluntary disappearance is considered unlikely, as Pattison was very dependent on her family and had little money. There were possible sightings of her in the Houghton, Michigan area and on Forest Highway 16 a few days after her disappearance, but these reports were not confirmed.

The two men Pattison was with on the night of her disappearance have been ruled out as suspects in her case, and both of them are now deceased. She is a former nurse. Her case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Office
906-884-4901